When it comes to growing your business, sales pages are a must. People will click through to your website from all sorts of places, including Google's search engine and social media. The page they land on will determine if they look a bit deeper into your site or back out, never to return.
Ideally, you want to convert as many visitors into customers as possible through the various pages on your site. These types of landing pages come in a variety of styles and formats, depending on your industry, product selection, budget and overall design choices.
Despite the differences, all sales pages have one common goal: to convince customers to continue engaging with your business through purchases and signups.
Getting people to land on your page is difficult enough, but getting them to stay is even more challenging. In the spirit of this idea, we thought it would be good to take a look at a couple of ways to get more users on your sales page and how to get them to stick around after they've checked out your offer.
Both pieces of the equation are necessary for you to see a sharp increase in conversions and traffic.
Let's get started!
Immediately show value
Imagine browsing social media and finding a business with an exciting promise. You click through to their sales page and expect to see the key headline detailed so you can determine if this company is right for you.
Once you make it to the sales page, you discover that additional details are scarce. However, they made sure to add a form to collect payment information from customers. Odds are, you would feel frustrated and possibly a little bit insulted.
You never want to put your visitors in that position. Instead, you want to immediately build on the promised value. This rule applies across all marketing platforms. Industry competition is fierce, and in most cases, sales come down to how well businesses explain their value proposition.
Let's say you're selling email marketing software. The subheadline on your ads might say, "We help small business owners grow their leads list." Sounds good, right? When a user clicks through on that advertisement, you have to show them how you'll help them reach your goals. Your sales page should focus on showing and explaining exactly how your business will help, not making blanket statements with no evidence to back up claims.
Make building trust a priority
The next way you can get more engagement on your sales page is by building trust with new visitors. Many people who make it to your landing page are likely discovering your site for the first time. As far as they are concerned, you're no different than a stranger.
You have to overcome this frame of mind by showing visitors that you're trustworthy. One great way to accomplish this task is to include several reviews of your product directly on the sales page. Feel free to look on social media, your product pages and general customer feedback when determining which reviews to use.
The most important element to consider is how that user describes your business and product. You want to give visitors realistic expectations based on real customer experiences.
It's also possible to build consumer confidence by adding trust seals to crucial sales pages. Trust seals are badges that show users that another company endorses your brand or that your company offers a 100% money-back guarantee. These seals send positive signals to your audience that you are someone they can trust. As a result, they will continue engaging with your brand.
Target smartphone users
It's impossible to talk about getting more engagement without mentioning smartphone users. Over half of the population owns a mobile device, and they use it for various reasons, including shopping. Forty-nine percent of people say they shop online exclusively from their phones.
When someone visits your website from a smartphone, they expect to be able to interact with your company from their device. People are not interested in using multiple devices just to complete a signup form or buy a product.
Optimizing your sales page for smartphone users ensures that everyone has a chance to take advantage of your offer. You'll want to consider things like page design, button placement and forms when making your site mobile-friendly.
If people can see what you're offering but can't complete the form because of button sensitivity, you'll likely lose out on countless sales. Spend time building a mobile-friendly website that works with all of the most popular devices and operating systems. Failure to meet users' needs with your design will result in an abnormally high bounce rate and a severe loss in engagement.
Reduce abandonment
While we are on the topic of bounce rates, let's talk about how to get people to come back to your sales page after they leave your site. There's no doubt that a large percentage of people will make it to your product page but leave before they complete their order. If this happens to you, there are plenty of ways you can bring these visitors back.
One of the best places for retargeting is social media. Well over 3 billion people use social media sites like Facebook, so you can bet that most abandoning users end up on social media throughout the week.
Encourage visitors to allow cookies when they land on your site for the first time. After they confirm, you'll have the ability to use retargeting to capture the attention of those who leave your sales page without signing up for your email list or buying the product on display.
When these folks are browsing their favorite social media channel, they will see ads that promote your brand the product that caught their attention. You can add a promotion to the retargeting ad to sweeten the deal, which might be enough to bring them back to your website.
You can also target subscribers who sign up for your mailing list but don’t take advantage of the offer on your sales page. Send out a friendly reminder after your welcome email that informs them that the posted offer is still available. Again, adding an exclusive discount is key to converting consumers that would otherwise leave your site and never look back.
Businesses rely on sales pages to reach new and existing customers, but it's up to the creators to make it work. Take a careful look at your target audience and make sure that you're fully explaining your value proposition from the moment they click a link leading to your site.
Once you show them why your product is excellent, work toward building their trust so you can calm any fears or doubts. Spend time nurturing prospects and creating a cycle of engagement that leads to new visitors landing on your site, subscribing to your email list and eventually becoming customers.
Before you can get more signups, you have to master your sales page. If you've made the changes I've outlined today and you're still not getting the results you were expecting, try split testing your pages. Making small changes to your design, phrasing and placement can dramatically impact how people engage with your brand.